Hats off to engineers

News editor

Does the portrayal of engineers as always wearing hard hats help or hinder the drive to attract new blood into the profession?

Numerous editorials in The Engineer have been devoted to the thorny issue of attracting young people into engineering and keeping them in the profession once they’ve graduated or completed an apprenticeship.

We do this with good reason. EngineeringUK estimates that by 2020 1.86 million engineering positions will need to be filled in a country that produces 46,000 engineering graduates each year.

What, we collectively ask at Engineer Towers, can be done to attract people into the profession and what could possibly be putting people off?

Is it a question of salary or career progression? Are pension plans and annual leave entitlement not good enough? Do the staff canteens at engineering companies have a reputation for serving up inedible lunches?

We just don’t know, or we didn’t know until Tuesday morning when an email was dropped into our inboxes that provided the very answer we’ve been looking for.

The answer as to why young people are put off engineering is not so much under our noses but on top of our heads and it’s titles such as The Engineer that are indirectly responsible for the shortfall in young talent.

According to a survey, media portrayal of engineers relies too much on the humble hard hat to define the profession and this, apparently, is detrimental to the perception of the role of engineers.

This is the conclusion of the Hard Hat Index, which has been launched by the Sainsbury Management Fellowship (SMF) to quantify the number of hard hats appearing in selected media.

The organisation simultaneously published a YouGov poll on public perceptions about engineers, plus results gained from a focus group made up of winners of the Engineering Leadership Awards (ELAs) scheme.

SMF concede that the Hard Hat Index is ‘intentionally whimsical’ but it is worth a look, along with the YouGov poll.

SMF say their methodology ‘is based on 12 months monitoring of the appearance of hard hats in carefully selected engineering media and 18 months monitoring of the national broadsheets.

This had me reaching for three copies of The Engineer, picked at random, to see whether we’re culpable. I’m pleased to report that issues dated August 16, 2010; April 30 2012; and March 2013 (the Policy and Projects special edition) contained seven pictures with people wearing the offensive headwear from a total of 148 pages.

Looking to the nationals, we don’t know what stories the images were related to. Clearly, a story about car designers wouldn’t warrant a hard hat but one about a big civil engineering project would. Quite often news desks rely on the companies being written about to supply an image and there isn’t much you can do if they supply one full of engineers wearing hard hats. In our experience, we’re likely to search our own stock of images if the one supplied isn’t as dynamic as we’d hoped.

As for advertising? Well, that’s down a company’s marketing department and the agency they engage with. Its out of our hands entirely.

I’d argue that a more worrying trend is for broadcasters to constantly misuse the word engineer. Only last Wednesday I caught glimpse of show on the BBC where the presenter set himself up as a repairer of white goods, an ‘engineer’ if you will. This, I’d suggest, is more damning to the profession than a hard hat ever will, despite the protestations of SMF who say, ‘The hard hat has become symbolic of engineers and SMF believes that this association is an example of how images detrimental to the perception of the role of engineers have far-reaching effects. This includes the ability to inspire, recruit and retain engineering graduates within the profession.’

The public, it would appear, are somewhat set in their ways when it comes perceptions of engineers. SMF’s YouGov poll of over 2,000 people found that 63 per cent believe the hard hat is worn by engineers on an average working day.

Furthermore, engineers were perceived to work mainly on construction sites and industrial sites with only 40 per cent believing engineering can take place in an office, which is, admittedly, more concerning when you consider the influence that this might have on those close to the people who took part in the survey.

The public, do, however, hold engineers in reasonable esteem, coming sixth (49 per cent of votes) in a league table of 11 professions that are particularly well respected in society.

Similarly, when asked to choose between a selection of attributes and skills associated with engineers, ‘professional’ came top (66 per cent of votes), followed by seeing them as ‘well qualified’ (64 per cent), and ‘being practical’ came third (61 per of votes).

So there you go, you all work mainly on building sites but at least people respect you. Maybe magic pixies build cars and jet engines, make sure we have oil, gas, and electricity, or keep us alive on life-support machines. It’s anyone’s guess. Something has to change, clearly.

The last word on this goes to SMF president, David Falzani, who sums things up very well.

‘The industry is being ineffective in how it portrays itself. It is our responsibility to communicate the opportunities better – we need to excite people about the diversity of engineering careers, so they can see the scope of responsibility, the opportunity to improve mankind’s condition, grow the economy and earn a good salary.

‘Building a better brand identity for engineers, alongside the work being done to promote engineering to young people, will draw more high calibre graduates towards the profession and ensure that a diversity of people stay within engineering.

‘We hope the Hard Hat Index will start a dialogue about the image of engineering and encourage companies and the professional societies to review how they portray the profession through their marketing, recruitment, publishing and reporting.’

Visit the UK’s dedicated jobsite for engineering professionals. Each month, we’ll bring you hundreds of the latest roles from across the industry.

To attract more kids into engineering there has to be better education of teachers first of all. Many haven’t a clue about engineering and what that actually means so how can they encourage their pupils?
Next, teachers have to make “difficult” subjects like maths and physics more enjoyable with a distinct focus on engineering. If pupils can relate to what they are being taught then that is half the battle!
I could go on and on however, presenting Alan Sugar as the epitome of business, the Beeb with their hard hats etc will always foil any attempts to enthuse children about engineering.
It all starts back in the classroom so we should concentrate there first of all.
Rant over!

Pictures of engineers wearing hard hats, safety glasses, etc, etc, are now the norm when depicting virtually any level of work within an industrial environment.

A few years ago we published a photo in a house journal of foreign engineers working at an overseas location wearing hard hats but no safety glassses — the local H&S requirerments did not demand glasses.

We immediately received complaints from UK-based H&S inspectors saying that we were not portraying engineers working safely within an industrial environment, regardless of local requirements.

As H&S now rules supreme, what hope is there for the image of the professional engineer, immediately he/she steps out of the design office?

(I’ve never seen a car mechanic wearing such safety gear when working under a vehicle!)

I agree with Fraser, Engineering as a profession is not targeted by schools. The pool of school leavers invariably get pushed down the path of IT, Business Management and Arts. Engineering very rarely gets a mention. This leads to school leavers having the wrong perceptions about what Engineers actually do as a career and the wide variety of disciplines and industries we serve. Target the schools first and get industry to assist with ‘Open Days’ were school leavers can at least get a taste of the different types of Engineering on offer. Make Engineering fun and enjoyable and lets see what’s happen.

Years ago I would have said that a slide rule might be a better accessory. Trouble is that a computer or tablet would imply IT. A design Engineer sitting at a desk with a computer would be a secretarial assistant. A hard hat and a tablet would be than a hard hat and screwdriver. Ideas required!

It’s organisations like the BBC with programs such as watchdog referring to dodgy builders as engineers, British gas referring to appliance installers as engineers and so on which is really damaging the title of engineer. I wrote to my Conservative MP explaining the problem and highlighting the misuse of the title of engineer and how it would effect attracting young people into the industry, basically she wasn’t interested. Put a complaint to British Gas, but they got confused because they thought engineers did fix boilers. Put a petition on the Government 10 site which thousands of people signed, nothing happened. Maybe we are just getting walked over, maybe all engineers and engineering companies should refuse to have any dealings with the BBC until they show some respect for our profession.

All this leads to my everlasting conviction that the title of “Engineer” should be protected by law and only people who have undertaken the rigour of a suitable academic and experience path may use the title.

For an intelligent and rational young person who might make a good engineer, I don’t think that media images depicting hard hats and the like are going to sway them too much.
Such people want interesting and, most of all, well rewarded careers.
In our society it’s still the case that essentially nonproductive activities such as moneylending, speculation, litigation and marketing remain substantially better rewarded than the genuine wealth-creators such as engineering. In this environment it’s no wonder that many of our most ambitious and capable youngsters may see engineering as second rate.
I believe that in some other countries, for example Germany, engineering is more highly valued. In my opinion this is a major reason why the German economy is outperforming ours, despite the fact that they are also propping up half the Eurozone.

I have been a Neighbourhood Engineer and Science & Engineering Ambassador for over 21 years helping to make STEM subjects in school fun and bring an understanding of Engineering to the children involved in such activities.

Fraser is correct about the importance of schools and teachers in making children aware of what engineering is and sadly most think an engineer is a car mechanic so what chance has a school child finding out from the teacher what an Engineer is.

It might be acceptable for a classroom teacher not to know but unacceptable for a teacher defined as a career advisor not to know. However – when my son wanted to be an journalist specialising in economics/commerce he was advised to study ‘Media Studies’ at University !!!!!!! – When I stopped laughing I advised my son to contact the economics/commerce editors of the Times/Telegraph who advised him not to do Media Studies but do a specific course at La Trobe University in Melbourne which is where he went. I suspect they are no more knowledgeable about Engineering.

All my Neighbourhood Engineer and Science and Engineering activities to make STEM subjects fun and interesting started with a 10 to 12 minute ‘I-Spy’ type activity that started with an explaination of the relationship of Science, Technology and Mathematics with Engineering and how Engineering combines science, technology and Mathematics to make an ‘Engineered’ product to make our lives better.

After the introduction the students were asked put their hands if they could see an engineered product in their environment (class or hall where we were)and, if they could, explain why it was ‘engineered’. After a few hands had gone up and the class(es) involved had realised virtually everything in their environment was engineered the came changed to identifying what hadn’t been engineered or using engineering!!!! Even the plants could have been genetically engineered and, event if not genetically engineered they have been developed through years of selective breeding and, as such, essentially ‘engineered’.

In essence, I was trying to get them to discover for themselves that virtually everything in their environment was engineered except them and then it happened – In one primary school class (a year 5 class doing Junior Engineer for Britain some 10 or so years ago) one child said that she was engineered as she was a test tube baby !!!!!

We then discussed how some things like cars, boats, planes, computers and mobile phones were engineered and the role of the engineers from from initial design and design calculations to manufacture making the world a better place – OR in the case of mobile phones, a worse place!!!!!!!

As a Metallurgist, Manufacturing Engineer, Welding Engineer and former Research Scientist I gave some examples of both how interesting and personally rewarding engineering can be in making the world a better place – One example I gave was how Materials engineering took the abacus and gave us silicon chips to give us calculators, computers and mobile phones and how continued material developments gave us smaller and more powerfull computers and intelligent mobile phones.

I closed the activity by asking what our lives would be like without the services of engineers and the products they created like electricty, clean water, roads, cars, busses, planes, the TV, computers, mobile phones etc.

Many environmentalists would say we would be in a better place however I would suspect we would still be neolithic subsistence farmers as many communities world wide essentially are. It was the development of irrigation systems and water storage (Water Engineering) that was essentially the birth of civilisation as it meant crop surpluses and dependable crops so that some farmers could support the non-famers in society. We are familiar with ancient Romes Aqueducts and Archimedes Screw still used in Eqypt and the middle east today but are less familiar with the water engineering of the lost indus civilization in India that is superior to what India was bequethed by the Raj in 1947 or today.

Maybe (as another has suggested) the title “Engineer” should be protected by law.

In many parts of the world, just as here in Canada the title Professional Engineer (P.Eng) is required to call yourself such. Try to do so without the relevent provincial engineering registration and are very quickly corrected.

I have never understood why we are never looked upon as professionals, in the same way that doctors, lawyers, accountants, etc. are? I guess we are perceived as “tradesmen” who “fix” things. As long as that is allowed then we will never enter the limelight.

Engineers must fight to have their title protected by law. I’ve a close family member who, by trade, is an electrical engineer. He works – like many engineers – at a facility where he and all of his colleagues have little or no room for error. Years and years of work and study (he started as an apprentice, eventually getting BSc, MSc and currently working for MBA) are thrown back at him when washing machine repairers put the word ‘engineer’ on their vans. They do this because the public clearly respect the term ‘engineer’ so let’s make sure people who call themselves engineers are

I remain to be convinced that there is a skills shortage. After completing my PhD in electrical engineering / semiconductor physics i applied for upward of 70 jobs in about two years. I heard back from 2. The rest? Silence. Not even an acknowledgement…

Surely anyone campaigning for us to protect the title engineer is missing the point. Surveys referenced in the original article show how highly regarded Engineers are and I know from my own experience just how well regarded we are amongst other professions. Giving the perception of being more elite and defensive is surely not the way to go. Engineering is something that is natural, and human. Something kids do naturally and instinctively with a sense of joy and inquisitivity.
I think a few definitions say a lot about what is wrong. My mum describes what I do as ‘hard sums’, a statement I dearly love, but one which shows one of the biggest problems about encouraging people to be engineers, they believe it is all about the maths. And what about asking people ‘what is design’. Most will inevitably talk about fashion, colours, clothes. Nothing about problem solving, the genuine creativity of working out what someone needs and then giving it to them. Nothing about the skills needed to actually implement a solution, all to often those basic skills that we enjoyed learning as children.

What we need is to communicate what it really takes to be an engineer, to encourage those with common sense and the ability to get things done to join the profession, even if hard sums is not their thing.

I would agree with Barrington’s comment – the term engineer should be a reserved one by law, as is that of architect.

In presenting engineering as a career choice, the design and development of everyday items such as mobile phones, computer software, and cars might encourage people to engage. The general population is less familiar with engineering such as that found in offshore installations, civils infrastructure, etc, etc although perhaps we could make more of the obvious successes such as the delivery of the Olympic sites and services last year.

i see most people all agree it starts at school to educate the young engineers of tomorrow the engineer can help here
1, build up a data base of what each general type of engineer does, build a star chart with all the types of engineer on it in a 360 fan form so that the young click on a type of engineer and what thy do but do so according to the age of the young engineer ie ask there age now, so that thy can start to plan a course of action to become an engineer, with help from the engineer , yes i accept you are not built for that the the world needs good engineers so we will have to help build them ,if you should require further help let me know( and no there will be no charge) due to i was young once and did not know the engineer was printed, so now we have email makes life alot easer for the young of tomorrow

Editor- I agree. They are aspects. Engineer is such a wide term and pinning it down has been difficult. Other countries have done it. It would do wonders for the industry if it was protected. It was automatically differenciate it from industries more associated with technicians such as plumbers and similar trades.

a jones- getting people to study engineering is one thing. Getting them to enter or stay in the industry is another. I have seen statistics showing less than half of people with engineering degrees actually working in engineering.

It worries me when you try to represent the Profession, by saying “you all work mainly on building sites…”, when in no part of the document you’re reporting on do you show that it mentions building sites. I wear a hard hat too infrequently on site work (because i don’t get out of the office as often as I’d like)- not building sites, but test facilities, dockyards and all those Engineering activities that require PPE. I am proud on the occasions when I do, as it links me to the hardware- the all too often forgotten output of our profession.

The fantasy of the confusion of Engineers with coffee machine repairmen, builders and the like will continue as long as you fuel them.